I could almost fall for him
by Fleeting Interest
Summary: Ino never thought much of Naruto. Out of everyone in her graduating class, she was the only kunoichi who never showed any interest in him. However after the Invasion of Pain, she gains a new appreciation for him and finds Naruto constantly in her mind. She slowly realizes that she has a crush on him now. Suddenly while bored at work, guess who shows up? None other than you know who


"'I could almost fall for him,' did I really say that out loud?!," questioned Ino Yamanaka as she thought back to the previous day's events when Naruto Uzumaki came back to the village on Kakashi's back after defeating Pain and miraculously resurrecting everyone who just died from the attack.

* * *

Ino was still clutching Shizune's dead body and in tears for having failed to save her mentor when Choji told her another piece of sad news: Kakashi sacrificed his life to save him. She was so angry and frustrated that so many of their loved ones died at the hands of Akatsuki. She felt helpless since she couldn't do anything to stop the monsters responsible for all this pain and destruction. Suddenly, while she was deep in thought, her dad telepathically messaged her.

"Ino, no need to cry anymore. We found Pain's real body. Shikaku and I are on our way and we'll make sure we stop him once and for all," declared Inoichi as he could feel his daughter's sadness through their mind link and wanted to appease it in any way that he could. She realized that her dad accidentally kept their mind link on when she unexpectedly heard him talk to Naruto.

"If you're here, that must mean that you defeated the 6th Pain, right?" said Inoichi.

"Winning or losing, does it really matter in the end?" replied Naruto in a surprisingly somber tone.

"What happened?"

"I can't really put it into words…"

"What do you mean… you can't put it into words?"

"In any case, I need to go see him. Please don't follow me. I need to do this alone," said Naruto in a stronger tone filled with resolve.

"Why do you want to meet him alone?!" questioned Inoichi in an increasingly angry tone.

"I want to talk to the real Pain face-to-face. I need to make certain something important," said Naruto. Ino couldn't believe that Naruto was standing up to her father like that.

"What?! You're talking nonsense! We're all grateful that you beat Pain, but it's too late to try to settle things with him!"

"Then tell me! What do you expect us to do?! Should we go kill all his teammates, his family and his entire village just for revenge?! Will that really give us closure?!" Ino was surprised that Naruto would say something like this.

"What good will talking to him do now?! That monster killed our friends and family. He destroyed our village! He caused us so much pain and grief. We cannot forgive him— not now, not ever!"

"I know that. You think I don't?! I feel the exact same way! I'm so angry at him that I can't take it anymore! How the hell can I forgive him when he did that to the village and to our people?!" frustratingly said Naruto with a hint of sadness in his tone of voice.

"Then…"

"Inoichi… Let's do as he says and let him deal with Pain alone. After all, he is the one who defeated Pain. He has earned that right. The only thing we can do now is to put our trust in him," butted in Shikaku. Inoichi knew that when Shikaku spoke like this, he was dead serious and decided to trust his old friend.

"Let's put our faith in Naruto then."

Ino was surprised at what she accidentally heard. Naruto stood up to her father and Shikaku actually backed Naruto up. He even asked her dad to trust Naruto. She could only hope that Naruto had a plan and would come out of this unscathed.

Minutes later, the ground shook and out of the site where Naruto originally faced the 6 Pains alone, came a gigantic being of immense chakra. The creature opened its mouth and out came a multitude of lights.

Ino was scared that Naruto failed and that this was an attack to finish them all off. She clutched her kunai as one of the lights came aiming straight at her. She braced herself for the attack, but was stunned to see that she was not the target— it was Shizune.

She looked around and saw that the mysterious balls of light all aimed for the dead bodies of their comrades. A few moments later, she felt Shizune's body, which was as cold as ice, suddenly warm up and come back to life. Shizune slowly stirred and then opened her eyes proving to everyone that she was alright now. Ino knew that this couldn't be possible. She just spent over half an hour exhausting all her chakra reserves and using every medical ninjutsu that she knew to try to revive Shizune, to no avail. Somehow, she knew that Naruto performed a miracle that brought back all their dead comrades to life.

Her assumption turned out to be true when Katsuyu relayed the information back to all of them. Somehow, Naruto convinced Pain to bring his comrades back to life. Right after Katsuyu finished conveying everything that happened, Ino heard a loud cheer. The villagers were actually praising Naruto and were starting to chant his name. She could not imagine that this was really happening.

She could not believe that the village prankster and number one bane to the villagers' existence would one day be praised as, "The Hero of the Hidden Leaf." She saw all the villagers welcome him back with such warmth and cheer, that for a moment, she forgot that they all used to see him as a nuisance.

Ino was grateful that Naruto managed to do all this and, for the first time, felt a tinge of jealousy towards Sakura who Naruto had feelings for and towards Hinata who just confessed to him in front of everyone. She realized that she made the wrong call only going after cool guys like Sasuke, who ended up betraying them, and Sai, who was hopelessly clueless at life. She actually thought that she should have gone after Naruto instead.

"I could almost fall for him," said Ino with a heart-warming smile on her face. She was staring right at Naruto and did not notice that she accidentally said it out loud. Her teammates, who were standing right next to her, heard her say it. They immediately gave a surprised reaction and tried to pester her to explain herself, but she didn't answer. She didn't mind at all nor did she show any hint of embarrassment. Today was Naruto's moment and even she had to admit that he was very cool right now.

* * *

"Sigh. I messed up pretty badly and let a good catch get away. I can't believe it! I actually want to date Naruto now," said Ino to herself as she was bored tending to her family's flower shop. She was alone at the counter when, speak of the devil, Naruto unexpectedly stepped inside their shop.

"Yo, Ino. What's up?" casually strolled the blonde ninja with a big goofy smile on his face.

"Oh hey! What's the "Hero of the Hidden Leaf" doing here?"

"Haha. You're embarrassing me. Just call me Naruto as always. I actually need some gardening help."

"You garden?!"

"Hell yeah I do. Watering plants is actually a hobby of mine. See for yourself! Here's my pet project," said Naruto as he revealed a potted plant from behind his back.

"Hmm. Looks like it's lacking in nutrition. What happened to it?" said Ino as she carefully examined the plant.

"I think I've been neglecting it for a while. I forgot to take it with me when I went training to be a Sage, so I missed a couple of days to water it."

"Hmmm. I can definitely take care of it. Leave it with me for a week and I'll make sure it's back to good health. No charge."

"Thanks Ino! I knew I could rely on you. You've always been a good friend through the years!"

"Always?! What're you saying?! We haven't known each other that long and we've only really started talking to each other after we graduated from the academy. I don't remember knowing you for that long at all." Ino was taken aback as to how close Naruto made it seem they were.

"Really? Well I got a good memory and I remember this one time before we started at the academy," said Naruto as he crossed his arms and started recounting what he remembered.

"What happened?!"

"It happened during enrollment. I was outside by the swings while the Third was talking to the teachers to enroll me when you showed up. You were bored while your parents spoke to the teachers as well and you decided to sit next to me." While Naruto was saying this, Ino suddenly remembered a chance encounter from long ago.

* * *

"Hey! Nice hair. It's a little messy and spiky, but I like the color," said a smiling girl his age with the same hair color as him. She was pretty and had a nice hair slide on.

"Are you talking to me?" questioned Naruto as he wasn't used to people talking to him.

"Of course, silly, do you see anyone else around?"

"Are you sure you should be talking to me?"

"Why not? You look like you're just as bored as me and two bored blondes got to stick together, right?"

"Haha."

"You finally managed to smile. That's great. You should smile more often! You have a really nice smile."

"Thank you."

"Hey. Let's have a game. Let's try to see who can swing the highest."

"You're on!"

They swung for a bit, but after a while, they slowly came to a stop. Naruto wanted to know more about this mysterious person so he asked her a question.

"So what does your family do for a living?"

"My family owns a flower shop so I know a lot about plants and stuff."

"Wow. Really?"

"Yeah. Hey, you know what? I heard that if you ever feel lonely, you should talk to the plants while you water them. They'll respond to your feelings by growing up to be nice and healthy."

"Oh really?! Thanks!"

"Yeah! So you should stop by our shop if you ever need any help with plants. That's a promise," said the girl while extending her pinky.

"Sure." Naruto extended his pinky as well and they entwined the two together signifying their promise.

"Hey. I have to go. It was nice to meet you. Let's hang out again next time," said the girl as she noticed that her parents were done with their business and that they had to go. Before she left, she gave him a light peck on the cheek. Naruto was so surprised, that he ended up forgetting to ask the girl what her name was.

* * *

After Naruto finished his story, he noticed that Ino's cheeks turned to a bright shade of red.

"You feeling okay there, Ino?"

"Of course! Why wouldn't I be?" said an embarrassed Ino when she remembered that she technically gave her first "kiss" to Naruto. At the time, she only wanted to cheer him up, but now that she had these feelings for him, she was really embarrassed. The awkward silence broke when Naruto suddenly interjected.

"It's too bad we never got to hang out after that. You were my first ever friend and I never got your name till way later. It made it really hard to approach you."

Ino remembered that there was a time that she wanted to hang out again with her new friend. However, she started hearing bad rumors about Naruto and painfully decided not to because she didn't want her other friends to not like her. Now that she remembered, she felt really guilty that she was so childish and immature to ignore a good friend just to conform to the norms.

"That's too bad. Tell you what, to celebrate the remembrance of our first encounter, let's go have ramen! It'll be my treat, Naruto!"

"Oh really? You're the best, Ino. I love you!" said a grinning Naruto as free ramen was not something he would easily pass up. He was so excited that he didn't even notice that he said such an embarrassing line that made Ino blush again.

"Oh wait. We should invite Choji and Shikamaru as well," said Naruto as he didn't want Ino's teammates to be left out.

"Oh don't worry about them. If Choji finds out about this, he'll finish all the ramen or worse, force us to go get yakiniku instead. If you invite Shikamaru, Choji is bound to find out."

"Hmmm. You got a point there. Oh well. If they ever find out about it, I'll make it up to them somehow."

"Yup."

"Hey Ino. What should I do to make up for this?"

"What do you mean? You don't need to do anything, silly!"

"I got it. I'll buy some flowers."

"Oh really?" said a blushing Ino since she was surprised that Naruto would be considerate and started thinking that it'll be meant for her.

"Yup. I need to thank Hinata for saving my life, not to mention, give a reply to her confession. So I'll support one friend's shop while giving another a gift. That's a nice idea!" said a grinning Naruto with a big thumbs-up to show Ino that he really thought it was the perfect idea.

"Oh right," disappointingly replied Ino. She realized that just because she found out about this secret past between the two of them, it doesn't change the fact that she was too late. Hinata loved Naruto since they were at the academy. She deserved a chance to be happy and have her feelings reciprocated.

"Well, do you know what she likes?" Ino tried to hide her tiny bit of sorrow and be happy for Hinata.

"I don't know what kind of flowers are her favorites, but I do know that I want a flower that says something about her bravery. Umm… is there a flower like that?"

"Yup there is. I'm well versed in the language of flowers. Now that's my hobby and you definitely asked the right person. Here's a nice bouquet of peonies."

"Thanks, Ino."

"So what're you gonna say to her?"

"Well her confession caught me by surprise since I never saw her in a romantic way, but I think I'll give it a try. It's about time that I move on from Sakura who, we all know, will never stop loving Sasuke. Also, it's the first time someone told me that they loved me from the bottom of their heart. I was kinda touched," said a slightly embarrassed Naruto. He tried to laugh it off, but Ino could tell that he was really excited about this.

"Oh. That's nice. Look at you, Naruto, all grown up and mature now. I'm proud of you."

"Haha."

"Have this nice gardenia to add to your personal collection. You can keep it if you want, but for now, it can replace the one you left with me." Ino gave Naruto a pot with a single gardenia flower growing.

"Oh really? It's nice. So what's this flower mean in their language?"

"It means… gratitude. I want to give it to you as thanks for everything."

"Oh really? Thanks a lot, Ino! I'll make sure to take care of this."

"Since you're about to meet up with Hinata, let's take a rain check on that ramen outing. Have fun on your date, Naruto!"

"Thanks again for everything," said Naruto as he waved goodbye and walked towards the door. Before he stepped out however, he turned around and said one last thing to Ino.

"You know, Ino, I should be the one to thank you. You don't know how much I owe you. You were my first friend, you gave me my love of plants and you gave me a reason to smile more often. Those were all thanks to you. I never said this to anyone, but you were my first love, Ino, and I thank you for being my first friend from the bottom of my heart." said Naruto before walking out the door. For the first time, Ino saw Naruto blush a bright red.

"Sigh. I have such a terrible luck. I could've been with the guy I like now a long time ago," said a melancholy Ino to herself as she mockingly laughed at her current state. This situation reminded her of those cheesy romance novels that she read. As she was talking to herself, her dad came back and entered through the shop entrance.

"Was that Naruto that just stopped by? What did he want?" said a surprised Inoichi.

"He just wanted some flowers for his date with Hinata."

"I saw the bouquet of peonies, but what was the gardenia for? I thought you were saving that for someone special."

"Dad, I just wanted to thank him for saving us. That's all."

"Well you could have given him a bluebell instead. The bluebell flower's meaning is gratitude. The gardenia you gave means secret love."

"Dad! Of course I didn't mean that. I only like cool guys."

"Jeez Ino, I was just pointing that out. No need to get all defensive. Well I just want you to know that if you do end up liking Naruto, that I wouldn't mind it at all and would fully support your decision," teasingly said Inoichi.

"Dad! Mind your own business!" said an embarrassed Ino.

"Ok. I'm leaving," said her dad as he went upstairs back to their house.

"Sigh. I'm pathetic, aren't I? Well this will make a great laugh when I go out drinking with the girls. I wonder what Sakura will think? At least, I one-upped her somehow since I was technically Naruto's first love."


End file.
